How do I make the parts of my clouds that face the sun blaze red and orange like in this picture? http://www.zenhaiku.com/archives/sunset_in_new_mexico_background_picture.html (http://www.zenhaiku.com/archives/sunset_in_new_mexico_background_picture.html)
I'm creating a sunset picture at the moment and even though the sky is red and orange, the thick cumulus clouds I've created are all pure gray. There isn't even a hint of redness on them.
The link to the photo you posted comes up with '403-Forbidden', so I can't see it.
As a guess, have you tried changing the cloud 'Scattering Colour' to red?
Oops, I've changed the link. Hopefully it should work now. I'll try that, thank you.
Quote from: Elegy on December 15, 2007, 08:12:14 AM
Oops, I've changed the link. Hopefully it should work now. I'll try that, thank you.
nope still get
"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /images/sunset-1024.jpg on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/1.3.39 Server at www.zenhaiku.com Port 80"
Well, hopefully it'll work now. I forgot to modify the link address, I only modified the link name.
I can see the photo now. Try upping the 'Redsky Decay' setting under your Atmosphere, or upping the 'Bluesky Density'.
Quote from: JimB on December 15, 2007, 08:56:26 AM
I can see the photo now. Try upping the 'Redsky Decay' setting under your Atmosphere, or upping the 'Bluesky Density'.
That doesn't seem to be working. The whole image looks redder but the clouds aren't blazing at all. Changing the scattering colour didn't produce any noticeable difference either.
What about the Glow Power settings in the clouds lighting?
Quote from: JimB on December 15, 2007, 09:16:26 AM
What about the Glow Power settings in the clouds lighting?
Nothing unfortunately. Would anyone who has made a picture with the blaze effect please share the settings you used?
I might have something from awhile ago, I'll take a look and see what I dig up.
It has to do with sun position and cloud height...
Problem is, last time I made it work, I had to place a second sun below the horizon to get the right angle...
Quote from: Mohawk20 on December 15, 2007, 01:30:55 PM
It has to do with sun position and cloud height...
Problem is, last time I made it work, I had to place a second sun below the horizon to get the right angle...
ROFL! Looking at the photo in the first post.... Q: Where's the Sun? A: Below the horizon. ;D
I'll try playing with a second sun and see if that makes a difference. I already tried lowering the default sun below the horizon and it didn't help, but maybe two will.
With the default atmosphere and one cumulus cloud layer preset, putting the sun elevation at 0 gives the right sort of hue, but when the sun is close to the horizon the biggest obstacle to this effect is other clouds (which might not be visible) casting shadows onto the clouds which you want to glow.
There are ways to remove very distant clouds (perhaps using the Distance shader), but a simple way to solve the problem is to experiment with slightly different sunlight headings until you find a clear pathway from the sun to the clouds you want to illuminate.
You also need to render high detail areas (perhaps with the crop feature) to really test this well (notice in the photograph how the glowing edges of the thick clouds are very thin). If you reduce the density of the clouds it becomes easier to see the glow effect on more of the clouds.
Matt
Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea how to use shaders. How would I attach a distance shader to the clouds to get rid of distant ones?
In the Atmosphere layout, select your cloud layer in the node list at the top left. Click on the Pattern button below the list, and it should open a parameter window for the density fractal. Near the bottom of this window click on "Blend by shader" and then click on the "..." to the right of the text field. In the popup menu select Create new shader -> Colour shader -> Distance shader. The text field field should now contain "Distance shader 01". Now you can click on the "..." button again to open the parameter window for the Distance shader. The distance shader will now act as a mask/multiplier for the cloud density fractal.
Edit the Distance shader parameters as follows:
Drag the far colour slider to the left so that the far colour is black (0) so that clouds are removed at the far distance.
Drag the near colour slider to the right so that the near colour is white (1) so that clouds are in full effect at the near distance.
You'll need to experiment with a different value for far distance and near distance - between these distances the amount of cloud will ramp down from the current pattern to none at all. With the default settings the clouds will reduce in density from the near distance of 0 and disappear completely within 10000 metres.
Matt
Matt,
You could add more flexibility to your method if at some point TG2 had a curves node which could be an vary powerful node depending on what other node/s it was connected to every thing from offset control to precise color control: is such a powerful feature a possibility in future: a curves node would let users gain finer control over what they are doing and do things that can only be imagined right now?
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel
Quote from: Matt on December 16, 2007, 03:31:08 AM
In the Atmosphere layout, select your cloud layer in the node list at the top left. Click on the Pattern button below the list, and it should open a parameter window for the density fractal. Near the bottom of this window click on "Blend by shader" and then click on the "..." to the right of the text field. In the popup menu select Create new shader -> Colour shader -> Distance shader. The text field field should now contain "Distance shader 01". Now you can click on the "..." button again to open the parameter window for the Distance shader. The distance shader will now act as a mask/multiplier for the cloud density fractal.
Edit the Distance shader parameters as follows:
Drag the far colour slider to the left so that the far colour is black (0) so that clouds are removed at the far distance.
Drag the near colour slider to the right so that the near colour is white (1) so that clouds are in full effect at the near distance.
You'll need to experiment with a different value for far distance and near distance - between these distances the amount of cloud will ramp down from the current pattern to none at all. With the default settings the clouds will reduce in density from the near distance of 0 and disappear completely within 10000 metres.
Matt
That's perfect, thank you. I've tested it out and it works. Now to see if I can get a blaze effect using this...
Hi,
Think you have to set up another camera at the centre of your area of interest, then set the Distance Shader's origin (called camera) to that new camera and play with the near and far distances. Plug the output of the shader into the density input of the cloud layer.
You can insert another shader using boolean logic (and, or, not) to break up the distances selected in the Distance Shader.
Enjoy.
AM.
oops, didn't notice the second page here. Ignore my reply. Others know better.
I have seen a couple of renders showing the kind of fiery red clouds you are after but have never made a scene like that myself. I have however produced similar results while experimenting with the position of the sun, so have an idea what to do.
After seeing your question I had the idea of whipping up a quick example and posting it here. Nothing fancy, sun on or just below the horizon and a cloud layer. I find that there is more than a little luck with clouds so tend to follow three basic steps:
First set the basic parameters: Feature Scale, Smallest Scale, Density, Edge Sharpness, Layer Height and thickness. The more you work with clouds the better feel you will get for these basic settings.
Keep an eye on the preview and hit the Random Seed button in the Density fractal until you get the sort of coverage you want. For most scenes the camera position is determined by the terrain so you will need to wait until the clouds come to you.
With the basic distribution set you can then fiddle with the density, coverage adjust and all the other settings until you get the appearance you want.
I got something I liked quite quickly but it has been one of those evenings with lots of distractions so the final adjustments have taken ages. Anyway here it is; this is only a low quality test render, I have a higher quality one running now and will add that once it has finished. I have also posted the tgd so you can see the settings.
Thank you very much, that has been a massive help. It turns out I had turned the haze up too high - it was obscuring any blaze effect I managed to get. The problem now is that the terrain looks far too dark - it doesn't look as expansive and ethereal without the distant areas being covered in haze. Is there any way to stretch my fractal terrain?
I just spotted this over in Image Sharing:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2969.0
This is probably my last post before going away for the holidays; I can take TG with me but will be without internet :( The high quality version finished but the clouds looked a little soft, I didn't do any crop renders before posting the last version I have increased the Edge Sharpness from 5 to 40 and done a high quality crop of a small area which looks a lot better. I am doing another low quality test to see the general result of this change. Looks good so far. ;)
For this test I also added a power fractal to the terrain; Seed 26461, displacement amplitude reduced to 1000 all others settings left at defaults. To compensate for the darkness I adjusted the Enviro light and made the strength on surfaces an unnatural 8 :o Again this looks like it is going to work but I may need to increase the GI sample quality.
I am not going to be able to post the results before I go away
I will be back in the New Year just in time for the beta release ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D